The present invention relates to a storage system, data processing method and storage apparatus, and, for instance, is suitably applied to a storage system having a plurality of storage apparatuses.
Recently, in the field of storages, virtualization technology of presenting a plurality of storage apparatuses as a single storage apparatus to a host system is being researched and proposed. According to this virtualization technology, the overall system will not be affected even though a new storage apparatus is added, and management costs of the storage system can be reduced thereby.
As one kind of such virtualization technology, conventionally, a system of storing a single file by distributing it to a plurality of storage apparatuses is being proposed. With this system, a file is divided per fixed length, and is sequentially stored in each storage apparatus according to a round robin method. Further, with this system, there is a management server that manages in what order the files are to be distributed and stored in which storage apparatus, and the host system inquires the storage position of the files to this management server when accessing the target file.
Incidentally, as virtualization technology of storage apparatuses, in addition to the foregoing system, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-216474 discloses virtualization technology for improving the extensibility of the storage apparatus without requiring a management server, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-266933 discloses virtualization technology for virtualizing and managing a plurality of storage apparatuses distributed over a network.